Pregnant and a PhD

[LauraPalmerish]

Knocked up and in the midst of a PhD? Here's a place for us to chat!

I'm in the first year of mine and will be going on maternity just after my upgrade when I was meant to begin teaching. Currently attempting to focus on my 6 month review but have lost a lot of enthusiasm due to extreme exhaustion and other early pregnancy symptoms.

I'm 7+ weeks (saw lovely heartbeat last week), have another early scan on the 10th and my official nuchal dating scan on the 26th. We've had 2 MCs in the past year so right now I'm more interested in protecting my pregnancy than writing my literature review!

Good idea to start a thread for us! I'm in my second year and will probably take the whole of 2013 off on maternity leave. As I will have done one term of the 3rd year, it doesn't sound too bad, but in reality things are not going well, and I will clearly overrun...

The best thing about it is being able to mainly work from home. It's been amazing while I've been feeling awful, and means that nobody at uni suspects yet as far as I know. I hope after our scan soon I will regain a bit of motivation. I got married in my first year of the PhD so am constantly distracted with one thing or another!

Congratulations! I'm not pg, but about to finish my maternity leave and return to my PhD. Actually, this was my 3rd maternity leave during my PhD. My supervisor just groaned when I announced the last pregnancy :o

Not quite the same but I'm going through promotion exams whilst pregnant. Good luck because my brain is fried. I'm not retaining any info and can't concentrate.

I am just about to finish mine and I'm 11 weeks. I am so impressed, bedhopper, that you've managed to do 3 mat leaves!! I was afraid my brain would be permanently mushy, and that I would lose all motivation, so I waited until I was nearly done before ttc.

Bonjour! V excited to have this thread. I'm at a similar stage to fairy -- just finishing my second year. I finished and submitted my end of year review work today after two pretty horrendous weeks of non-stop writing and felt pretty flat afterwards, but I had a really nice email from my supervisor about it and am actually feeling super motivated now! A bit crampy and achey though, which I hadn't been for a few days. I hope the tiny one is not objecting to the near all-nighter and crazy stress of getting it all finished today.

I may be the least far along at 5+5 (due 23rd Feb) -- how pregnant are the rest of you? I'm planning to stop at Christmas and officially go back in Sept, but hopefully start getting into it again over the summer. bedhopper: wow!

Wow bedhopper I thought I was doing well to be on baby no. 2 of this PhD. Feeling pretty crap today, had my approval review and got referred for amendments for the second time.

Seriously considering jacking it all in

Excellent thread....thanks for starting it.

Like Laura I am just completing my first year, although thanks to being on a 1+3 programme am mid way through data collection. I'm also finding that I've lost all motivation, although I'm now between 14-15 weeks. I told my supervisors a couple of weekss ago, half expecting them to be crosss, but they were actually really happy and positive about it all. I'm optimistically hoping to keep going until end of Autumn term before going on mat leave. I have six months paid leave, but am hoping to take about 8-9 off in total. DH doesn't think we can afford it as we're also planning to move, but I'm sure we'll manage somehow.

bedhopper I'm also v. impressed, and slightly envious. We're sure that PhD is right time to have children but I just don't think I could could cope with lots of LOs and a thesis to write!

Well, don't be too impressed until I finish the bloody thing! It is tricky, but I am very motivated to do it (but also extremely tired...)

Hi all - I am in the same boat. Am nearly 8 weeks with #2, due on 9th Feb. I had DC1 halfway through my second year of the PhD. I am due to finish writing up in November so really trying to stay on track but feeling bored/ distracted etc. Glad it's Friday!

Hi all, snap! I am in the middle of phd (second year full time) and due in November (3rd DC). Finding it so hard to be motivated and think I am horribly behind (work part time too).

Just debating how long to take off at the moment - I am funded, but not through a research council, so won't get maternity pay, which is really annoying. May well just have 3 months off as can't afford a lot more. Bit worried about how it'll be getting a job afterwards too as at a recent conference was told that in my field its about 80 applicants for each academic post (gulp!)

You lot - big respect. My mum did her bar finals 8.5 m pg with my sister, her DC 4. We have a copy of the Telegraph from July 1974 with her exam results and my sister's birth announcement.

I have a PhD. I have DC. About ten years between them. No way could I have done them together!

Apologies for the hijack - I am pregnant and applying to do a PhD (currently finishing my masters). But I'm not sure how it will work out, especially financially.

If you have DC already, are you still studying full time? How much childcare do you need.

Feeling inspired by bedhopper!

bedhopper and all of you, am very impressed.

Am not amid a PhD but about to abandon career to go to grad-entry medical school to retrain as a doctor; am 8 wks pg so it's had to be deferred till next year and trying not to think about the interview I'll have 3 weeks before baby is due - please oh please don't come early! Ah well, at least the exam is done and conquered. All being well baby will be about 7 months when I start.

Best of luck to all :)

daisychain this might be a long shot but I am funded by my school rather than a research council, so no maternity provision in my funding contract, however there had been another school funded PhD who had a baby a few years before me and they had given her the equivalent maternity pay as she would have had from the more usual research body. So working on that precedent they gave me the same.

I found out through our research support team and they sorted it out for my along within my supervisor. So it may be worth looking into.

I don't get anything this time as they only provide one maternity leave in the standard contract.

Thanks twofurry. I did ask the administrator and manager but they both said internally funded phds don't get maternity pay. However, they did say the research institute directors are currently reviewing the policy so there is a glimmer of hope!

twomuchribbon that's really exciting. Good luck with the interview.

mrsbugsy I am hoping to get by with two mornings a week with a childminder when the baby comes as I am going to cram work into nap times and evenings (other DCs are both at school). Would be interested to know how much time in a week others with DCs actually do manage to spend on their phds?

Hey I'm so glad theres a PhD thread. I'm in my final year, submitting (hopefully) in 3 months. I'm 5 weeks but have been trying for ages. The plan was to go off halfway through then come back part time, but things never go according to plan! So now I'll be unemployed with no chances of maternity pay (darn it!). But I'm now feeling so ill that I can't concentrate on my writing and obviously I can't explain it to my supervisor until I'm close to submitting. what do you do when you're feeling too ill to work but can't tell anyone?!

Great thread :-) I'm in my 4th year PT, have FT R&T post as a Lecturer in Mental Health and an 18 month old DS. any tips on how the he'll to get finished VERY welcome!! I upgraded after a year PT but then did a 3 year post doctoral position and Uni let me interrupt - so now have a book and stack of journal articles published, a level 5 permanent post doc position... And no doctorate! Hard to complete when I also have pressures from work. But I get 12 weeks / year study time... I am bloody lucky and not moaning at all - but v busy!

I'm in the same boat dontcare - I feel so yucky and having a hard time concentrating. There's very little writing getting done and I'm due to hand in a load of work this afternoon. Currently sitting in the GP waiting room for blood tests.

Must. Gain. Focus. Today.

Hello,

I am also pregnant (23 + 4 EDD 26 Oct) and doing a PhD.. I get 3 months paid mat leave then I am back to it though fortunately I only have a 0.5 FTE contract so for the moment (and after baby is here) I will try to stick to my official hours.

Recently I have been really struggling with tiredness and major lack of motivation (doesn't seems fair in 2nd trimester) but was lucky in first as I was relatively well. I have sort of got a bit better recently but I am afraid that I will get less and less productive as time goes on - so trying to fight it. Did anyone else find that when the baby arrived it actually helped them to focus as time was much more limited? (this is my hope)

Regarding telling my supervisor I told him very early (I think something like 6 weeks) in order to make plans for the coming months - this worked really well and I have had his support from the very beginning. I think it is best to get it out in the open (especially if you are suffering MS) in my experience people are generally v v happy for you and on the whole supportive.

Anyway had better get off mumsnet and back to the systematic review...

glad to have found this thread.. Good luck ladies

I'm starting to feel a bit less well, and am so grateful a) that my 'job' is generally flexible enough for me to be able to rest when I need to and b) that this is happening in vacation time so I really can suit myself with work schedule etc. Only thing is, by the time our new academic year starts I might conceivably have a visible bump, which will make breaking the news gently a bit difficult!

Can I just say hats off to all of you?!

Not doing a PHD, but have just finished (hopefully!) first year of an MBA that I'd signed up for before finding out I was PG with DC2. This year has been interesting to say the least, what with returning to study after too many years not touching anything remotely academic, a massively busy time in a full time job (who are sponsoring the MBA, so no choice about being there!), and various health issues, which thankfully turned out to not be related to being PG in the end. Work have agreed I can continue studying whilst I'm on maternity leave from them, so I can at least stay with the same lovely cohort, and our internal training team and uni are working out ways to make it as easy as possible for me to keep up the studying whilst having a newborn again...

Final paper for this year was submitted last week, so just need to sit tight and keep fingers crossed that I've passed, have baby (due end of July), then wait for dates for next year to come through - nothing too major then!!!

But seriously, I can't believe the stories up thread - and I thought I was nuts and didn't do things by halves